October 15, 2009 at 15:37Quake mouse brain scanned
Wearing a helmet on the mouse’s head and running a virtual reality simulator on the open Quake 2 engine, American scientists were able to record the activity of individual hippocampal neurons in real time. This is one of the first studies of this kind, writes Wired.
The helmet is designed for magnetic resonance scanning, and micron sensors have been introduced into the mouse brain to remove impulses from individual cells.
When passing certain sections of the Quake 2 map, instead of first-aid kits and cartridges, the mouse received portions of water through a special tube drawn to its muzzle, which prompted the experimental animal to run further with renewed energy.
Science knows only in general terms how various parts of the brain work, including which is responsible for the coordination of movements. But it still remains unclear how individual cells work in this.
As you know, magnetic resonance scanning allowed you to scan the brain only in a static position. Therefore, scientists had to invent a special design. They put a helmet on the mouse and firmly fixed it, so that the head of the mouse remained motionless, and the rest of the body could actively move. To simulate the movement, the mouse was placed on a movable ball, so that it was able to run and turn along the corridors. The movement from the ball was shot by sensors of a conventional computer mouse.
The results of a unique study were published yesterday in the journal Nature [Intracellular dynamics of hippocampal place cells during virtual navigation. Christopher D. Harvey, Forrest Collman, Daniel A. Dombeck, David W. Tank. Nature, Vol. 461 No. 7266, October 14, 2009].
The helmet is designed for magnetic resonance scanning, and micron sensors have been introduced into the mouse brain to remove impulses from individual cells.
this is MPEG4 video file 4 MB
When passing certain sections of the Quake 2 map, instead of first-aid kits and cartridges, the mouse received portions of water through a special tube drawn to its muzzle, which prompted the experimental animal to run further with renewed energy.
Science knows only in general terms how various parts of the brain work, including which is responsible for the coordination of movements. But it still remains unclear how individual cells work in this.
As you know, magnetic resonance scanning allowed you to scan the brain only in a static position. Therefore, scientists had to invent a special design. They put a helmet on the mouse and firmly fixed it, so that the head of the mouse remained motionless, and the rest of the body could actively move. To simulate the movement, the mouse was placed on a movable ball, so that it was able to run and turn along the corridors. The movement from the ball was shot by sensors of a conventional computer mouse.
The results of a unique study were published yesterday in the journal Nature [Intracellular dynamics of hippocampal place cells during virtual navigation. Christopher D. Harvey, Forrest Collman, Daniel A. Dombeck, David W. Tank. Nature, Vol. 461 No. 7266, October 14, 2009].
